Skillings Announcement 3pm
- Thread starter Pittnerski
- Start date
Does this player reclass I think is the bigger question as he's been to Pitt 4 times now. One I dont know the answer to yet...
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No, Skillings has not made it official, yet.
Jeff Capel was not at Roman Catholics gym for Skillings either the other day.
"Why" wasnt Capel there is the question I cant answer.
Marlon Barnes is a "when" at this point, not an if for Pitt. The only if with Barnes, is if he will reclass.
I wouldnt rule out a Lamothe reclass either. Although Pitt is only a contender for him, not a leader as far as I know.
Appreciate the feedback. Seems disappointing as I thought maybe incorrectly we were leading for him. Not that we haven't seen this story before but...
It's a done deal. The Capel Brothers have done the "unfollow thing."
We were. At worst, co leading. And no, Im not making that up either. Leader Johnson reported it about 5 days ago too and he covers Philly basketball.
I "cant" answer why Jeff Capel was not at Roman Catholic's open gym. I cant even confirm we had any coaches there at all. It was NC State full staff and Cincy for Skillings. Multiple people have asked me this now.
What I can say is, Marlon Barnes is a really good guard / wing that has visited Pitt 4 times now. He is a legit 4 star Top 50-80 talent with significant upside and he can shoot the 3 ball. And he just visited Pitt for the 4th time.
I'm just going to go ahead and believe you on this point.
If it doesn't turn out to be true, I will indeed remind you of this post.
Yep, everyone was saying we were leading. Barnes does look strong though.
I see no reason to doubt Barnes, he has been here four times. Stranger things have happened but he would be welcome to join us.
Just to be clear, I am not saying that Jeff Capel backed off Skillings. I dont know the reason why he / we were not at Roman Catholic. I speculated he was out and would be at the next open gym, but I find it highly "strange" he was not there or we were not there 3 deep.
Leader Johnson reported it was Pitt and Miami leading with really Pitt out front. I relayed additional info to people who post on your own premium board. I made it clear he was likely to stay closer to his family in NJ and that is why Miami wasnt a strong contender like Johnson said. I still cannot say where the heck Jeff Capel was after the Barnes visit.
The only thing with Barnes that I can see as an issue is Overtime Elite if it comes up. I mean, if anyone would have asked me a few months ago if Dominick Barlow would be making 500K a year with them I would have never believed it.
One of our Coaches was in North Carolina watching Jaydon Young and Jaylen Curry in North Carolina instead of at Roman Catholic for Skillings I can now confirm. Curry is a major target, already visited Pitt once, stud point guard that was the starter for Team USA Under 16's. Pitt has monitored Young for some time, currently a Top 75 kid in 2023.
Waste. Skillings was about to announce. Bring all the coaches including Capel. At least give it your all. Unless Skillimgs told Pitt no before the open gym. But why would we then still have a coach there. Nothing about our coaching staff makes much sense to me. I guess I hope we get Barnes. But Capel can’t close except for Mintz and since his first recruiting class.
It was only "reported" we had a single coach there for Skillings by 1 person on twitter. I don't see anyone confirming it. Maybe we did, maybe we didn't have anyone there at all. I told a few other people that it was highly unusual not to be 3+ deep for a player we want badly at this stage of his recruitment. See RJ Davis or Dominic Barlow for examples of this where the entire staff was always there. Or Mintz over the summer for another example, we were constantly 4 deep at his games.
Skillings decision could have been made already. Its also possible Barnes may have impacted it. I cant say either way with certainty.
3 examples. And a 100 of missed examples of players we should have got. Capel got lucky 3 times. And Champ turned out to be a surprise.
I'm sorry. I can't get excited about this. We whiffed on 2021 recruits because Capel was focusing on 2022 guys. Now we're whiffing on 2022 recruits and the narrative is going to shift ot how we're making progress with 2023 dudes. Nah.
I'm still worried about 2021. Is there still a ship for '21 or did they give it to a walk on? If not, is it still possible to bring someone in?
I wasn’t quite ready to go there myself but that’s been foremost in my mind for hoops.
There’s a thread about how crazy the football board is on the hops board. While there may be fewer and it might not be quite as “crazy” there’s no shortage of the same spinning and rationalization that goes on here. It may not be quite as apoplectic on the hoops board even when they lose, but it’s nutty just the same.
There are 4 open ships available between the next 2 classes right now.
It would be a bigger failure by Capel if there was a mass exodus of players leaving at seasons end again. I don't see that happening again because people aren't going to stand for it. The entire summer has been built on team building and chemistry building and no more of this big 3 hero ball nonsense that has taken place the last few years under Xavier Johnson. And Yes, Capel is somewhat at fault for the way he handled it and the mile long leash he gave X.
I do agree this in on Capel now to make it work starting now. But I will be surprised if at seasons end there are going to be a lot of open ships to give out again with players leaving by transfer. Could it happen, sure. But the fanbase is going to cave in on Capel if he rips it all down again. He isn't that stupid.
Assuming Barnes, we have 3 ships to play with as of today. A point guard and a center take are locks. If there are significant reaches getting offers, then that would be the appropriate time to be more skeptical.
Appropriate judgement on the 2021 players will take place soon enough.
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Why do you assume Barnes as a sure thing. Do you have inside info? Not being a jerk I have seen this play out way too many times with Capel. We think we got someone locked up and hey go somewhere else. The 4 visits are great but do you have inside info from coaches?
Yeah. Lotta “locks” have ended up going elsewhere lately.
He's going to Hugleys school, their coach loves Capel, so there is that. But as you and Ski note the run of kids they appear to be in really good shape with that don't work out at the end the last two years has been excruciating.
